First Attempt At Water Marbling
I've seen so many tutorials for this technique, I just couldn't resist. Unfortunately it's one of those nail designs where it looks so much better in real life, but you will just have to take my word for how effective it is!
You will need:
3/4 colours of complementary nail varnish,
a clear topcoat, Sellotape, a mug/cup of tepid water (filled to the brim),
a cocktail stick and/or pencil, nail varnish remover, cotton buds.
1. Start off by taping around your finger nails. It isn't totally necessary, it just makes cleaning up easier! I used Sellotape as we didn't have any masking (the boyfriend has recommended a liquid mask for next time, where you just paint it on and then peel it off).
2. Now for the marbling! A lot of people say that bottled/filtered water is the only sort that works, but I just took mine from a recently boiled kettle and let it cool down. I decided on 4 warm, summery colours - hot pink, bright yellow, tangerine and sparkly orange (all are very cheap varnishes from a set, apart from the tangerine which is Models Own 'Fuzzy Peach').
3. Carefully drip the polish into the water, using the same amount that you'd normally use for your nails. The drips eventually spread out into rings, and if you keep dripping into the same spot, you end up with a set of multicoloured, consecutive circles. I funked it up a little bit and added a few drips in various places, then used a cocktail stick to carefully guide the colours into a marbled effect.
As you can see, the sparkly orange looks like pure golden glitter when it's in the water. But once I'd transferred it onto my nail, the colour showed up again!
4. When you're happy with your marbling, you can start to dip! Dip your nails individually into the now colourful water. Carefully remove your nail, and use a cocktail stick/pencil to get rid of the excess. There's a knack to getting this part right, and you'll figure out for yourself what's the best approach! I managed to use the same 'pool of varnish' about three times before I had to create a new one, but I think that's better as it keeps the designs original :)
5. So you'll end up with something that looks a little like this... Yummy. Let your nails dry for a good few minutes before you remove the tape. Mine still looked very untidy after doing this, so I had to dip lots of cotton buds in nail varnish remove and scrub/pick away!
6. As always, I finished off with a couple of coats of clear varnish. I'm really pleased with how these nails turned out, and can't wait to try a purple/blue/navy colour scheme next time.
Share story
0 comments: